Television personality Miriam O’Reilly has hit back at comments made by former BBC newsreader Michael Buerk, who claimed it was “fair enough” for TV bosses to axe older presenters.

Buerk, 68, likened the process to “pruning the raspberries to make way for new growth” and said that those given jobs “because they look nice” should not protest if they later lost them.

Writing in the Radio Times, Buerk criticised female news readers and television presenters who complained of ageism when axed.

But writing in today’s Guardian, Ms O’Reilly, who won a landmark age discrimination case against BBC in 2011 after being dropped from rural affairs show Countryfile, said older men in the television industry rarely found themselves out of a job.

“Michael Buerk’s suggestion that female newsreaders and television presenters who ‘got a job mainly because (they) “look nice’ should not cry ‘ageism’ and go to tribunals when they no longer do, lays bare the sexist attitude still held by many men in the industry,” said Ms O’Reilly, who lives in Aberdyfi.

“I went to the law because executives were refusing to consider older women for roles in TV, and this has an impact on wider society.”

“Television has enormous power to shape opinion and form prejudice. If we don’t see older people on screen it’s as if they don’t exist, as if they have no value. As far as I know, I’m the only woman ever to have challenged BBC ageism at an employment tribunal.”

Buerk said in his piece that the axing of older presenters by the BBC had been common in the 1980s and argued that the corporation had recently turned back to “trendy” pensioners, such as Mary Berry, 79, Bruce Forsyth, 86, and 75-year old David Dimbleby, to front their shows.

“Older presenters were cut down in droves, much as you would prune the raspberries to make way for new growth,” he said.

“Fair enough, in my view, though many cried ‘Ageism!’ and several went to tribunals.”

O’Reilly agreed that older presenters had become “cool” again but this was only a result of sustained pressure from women within the BBC.

“When I won my case, the former BBC director general Mark Thompson said it was a “turning point” for older women in television,” she added.

“And sure enough, it seems that TV executives are finally waking up to the fact that audiences don’t reach for the remote as soon as they see an older face. Their perception that only the young and attractive will boost ratings, is outdated.”